Which Mac??

[stenchbings]

good afternoon, i am about to buy a Imac for my upcoming uni course. but i am unsure which version to go for. i have always used PC's and because the photography\design\graphic world largely uses MAC's and as my current desktop is on its last legs i thought i would take this oppotunity to make the transition.

i am definitely going to get the 24inch version as it will double up for a TV but the internal specs are where im falling down. the 2.66ghz version and the 2.93 version have almost identical specs apart from the graphics card and obviously the processor. but am i going to notice the difference?? or is the better graphics card and .30ghz processor speed worth the extra spend? i get 12% off as a student but the differnce in price would buy me CS4?

i am going to be using it for CS4, all other uni work etc. i am also going to have a PC laptop (which is not powerful enough to run CS4) to cover all the office\ windows programs, as i alreday own one.

Im new to mac's as only briefly used one. all help advice is much appriciated.

Many thanks

PS or should i be looking at something different for what i am going to spend?

[Fen]

because the photography\design\graphic world largely uses MAC's and as my current desktop is on its last legs i thought i would take this oppotunity to make the transition.

Kind of a myth...

They use them as they started using them before PC's became powerful enough to compete with them. By then, the companies had so much money invested in MAC that they have to keep using them.

Nowadays (and for some time) you can get PC's which run Photoshop as fast (or even faster) than MACs.

So, instead of splashing out on a MAC and then using another laptop for your Office stuff, why not just buy a decent PC?

[stenchbings]

i have also been thinking this, i say I, my dad mentioned it. i understand that mac vs PC is also down to people personal preference. but as the industry is already deep in mac, am i foolish to think it will stay this way and a company looking for an employee with no mac experience will be less sought after than a equally capable worker but with MAC experience? i have been debating this PC or MAC dilema since i got accpeted to uni and read so many reviews on both sides of the arguements but its the users that use the products.

how bout the system crashes, virus threats etc that a pc system has to deal with. i have read that mac's dont suffer from this side or things. also alot of people say they are better at multitasking? or is this another myth

I have about 1300 to spend and i want to get the best i can for my money as i dont plan on buying anything new for the forseeable future. i can buy all the office stuff for mac and sell my laptop if needed. argh im so confused

[beejaybee]

how bout the system crashes, virus threats etc that a pc system has to deal with. i have read that mac's dont suffer from this side or things.

Don't suffer from is a myth. But the software is undoubtedly a lot more stable than the horrendous mishmash of carp that calls itself windoze.

Do yourself a favour, go open source (linux). MacOS is a bloated resource sink, though by no means as bad as windoze (vista being unbelievable).

If you want to minimize cost, go windoze & don't complain about the performance, the crashes and all the time you waste because automatic updating wizards want to reboot your system (seems like every 10 minutes). I've had a linux system running continuously for 7 years....

[stenchbings]

linux is something that i used and didnt get on with at college.maybe its more of a specialised OS i think its definitely going to be mac or PC.

its not all about cost. i just want to spend once. mac like you say is more stable but am i going to be able to get a system that matches an IMAC's speed,quality of screen and stablity etc from a PC for the same money?

[GeoffR]

Switching from PC to Mac is about as hard as falling off a log.

The industry may well use Macs but if you want to use a PC for your course you will be able to convert easily enough. However, you need to be aware that both operating systems have their advantages and disadvantages. Go out and try an iMac and see if you get along with it because if you don't, £1,300 is a lot of money to spend on something that isn't right for you.

Macs are generally better integrated than PCs, and they ought to be considering the price difference, because all Mac computers are made by Apple this should mean that the software suffers fewer problems. Since getting my MacBook I rarely use a PC from choice but it is what suites you that matters.

[Rhys]

..just to throw a thought in, modern Macs can run Windows on a dual boot as they are intel driven.

[parisian]

Having just moved to Mac there is a learning curve to negotiate and the software is an issue but 'Office' is available for Mac and 'Apple Aperture' is by far the easiest and most comprehensive RAW convertor I have worked with (caveat: Lightroom is similarly rated by it's users. Capture and DXO are also very well thought of on here - all are available for PC)
I would not go back to PC, the whole package of machine and software just works so damn well.

[Meredith]

Do yourself a favour, go open source (linux).

Well as Photoshop is only available for Windows or MacOS using Linux would be a non starter.

[stenchbings]

Parisan, i see from you post on another thread that you bought the 2.93ghz imac, what made you go for this spec instead of the 2.66 24" version? this is my current dilema

which "office" software are you using? you go for Iwork or microsofts office for mac? why did you choose what you did?

sorry for all the question, but your someone who has made the transition so your advice is worth more IMO that a biased review team

[parisian]

Parisan, i see from you post on another thread that you bought the 2.93ghz imac, what made you go for this spec instead of the 2.66 24" version? this is my current dilema

which "office" software are you using? you go for Iwork or microsofts office for mac? why did you choose what you did?

sorry for all the question, but your someone who has made the transition so your advice is worth more IMO that a biased review team

Purely because it was faster (noticeably) in the tests that I read and with large picture files that matters.
I really wanted to get into Apple Aperture as a RAW processor having again researched it and watched the tutorials on the Apple website.
I loaded Microsoft Office (Home and Student edition) for Mac rather than iWorks as Sandra uses a PC based Office programme at work and we wanted compatability when she is working on presentations.
As I said there is a learning curve to negotiate, file structures are different for starters but it has been well worthwhile and wild horses wouldn't drag me back now.

[Scphoto]

I personally wouldn't bother with iWork. Although it is compatible with Office documents I found it didn't like anything too complex in Excel. NeoOffice is good alternative (as it's free!) but as Rhys said, you can run XP/office either through BootCamp or using some virtualisation software like VMWare or Parallels.

VMware/Parallels also works fine if the virtual PC is on an external HDD as well.

[stenchbings]

Microsoft office for mac i think it will be then that was my natural choice anyway because of my current windows laptop set up. when you say there are file structure differences? can you elaborate?

could you let me have the links to these tests as the ones ive found and read seemed to give pretty close results. although i was looking at general tests and not nessercarily strictly for photo work. (silly i know)

but i think that might have a to wait a couple more months and now i have the task of working out what version of CS4 to buy, i see another thread coming on

[stenchbings]

..just to throw a thought in, modern Macs can run Windows on a dual boot as they are intel driven.

would this not put the windows bugs updates back into the system? sorry im a bit cluless with this as you can tell

[Scphoto]

Windows would run in a separate partition, or virtual environment. So it would have no effect on OS X.

As for different file structure, well Finder is Explorer for the Mac. Personally I prefer explorer(on XP), but I've got used to it. The way it looks is probably the biggest issue, but files and folders work in the same way.

If you're used to working at a more technical level on Windows, then getting used to how it's done on a Mac does take a while (ie, mapping network drives, sharing printers etc). But that's probably as difficult as going from XP to Vista.

Most of the Mac forums tend to be quite helpful (though some users are a bit up their own arris).

Any questions if you get one just ask. I switched over nearly 3 years ago, so probably have had the same issues as other switchers.

[parisian]

File structure differences are simply little things such as there is no equivalent - that I have found anyway - to my documents, my pictures, my music etc.
The testing I read was in the various Mac Journals and though their websites/forums.

[GeoffR]

I switched late last year, having become exasperated with Sony's refusal to acknowledge that there was a reason to load XP on one of their notebooks. I just couldn't get on with Vista's eccentricities.

The learning curve was short, for me at least, and I had MS office for Mac up and running very quickly. The interface for Word, Excel ans Powerpoint is somewhat different but Entourage seems much better then Outlook. As mine is a MacBook it has a track pad and that is better than any equivalent available on a notebook PC.

I really don't think that anyone capable of using a Windows PC would have any significant issues with using Mac. In common with others on here, I wouldn't go back to Windows. I do however have to use XP at work and I have only replaced one of our computers with the Mac. When the desk to dies I will probably get an iMac but that won't be for a while I hope.

[GeoffR]

File structure differences are simply little things such as there is no equivalent - that I have found anyway - to my documents, my pictures, my music etc.
The testing I read was in the various Mac Journals and though their websites/forums.

I don't recall having "My Documents", "My Pictures" etc. In Windows 3.1 or 95 so if you ever used those the Mac file system will not be a problem.

[Scphoto]

Documents, Pictures, Music, Movies folder exist under the home directory........



Excuse the Kebab related drives

[parisian]

I wanted to uninstall a programme last night - I was expecting the usual windows hassle followed by the 'unable to to uninstall all the components' message that cropped up more often than not.
Here on the Mac (having checked with 'The Rough Guide to Macs & OSX 10.5 Leopard') all I had to do was drag the programme to the Trash icon.
Brilliant!